Old Timey Trash

I've been searching the city records, then the museum records, to find any information about the North dump. There's nothing. The city only keeps records starting in 1985, and the north dump was used before 1980. The museum has information on almost every character of note to pass through Dawson City, information on the archaeological value of tin cans found on the "north slope" (the slope above the north dump), but true to the philosophical status of trash, the museum doesn't care about the "elsewhere" of solid waste. Dawson City supported more than 3,000 transient gold diggers a year around the turn of the century. The north dump is almost impossible to detect because its along the shore and the shore is dropping into the river. So where did these thousands of people put their trash?

The museum directed me to "the town historian," a 94-year old man named Mr. Gould (for real), who has lived here his whole life. If the museum has a question, they call up Mr. Gould. Turns out he's my neighbour. He told me that the north dump wasn't really the dump proper, just some leftovers from when they had a dock that went into the water. They would burn the garbage on the shore and then push the remains onto the dock and dump it in the water. This was from 1902 or 1903 until 1980. Before that, they just dumped things into the river any old place, but the downstream folks complained (the north shore had -and still has- the poorest people and squatters, and then further north downstream there's the Tr'ondek Hwech'in nation. In the winter they would just leave it all on the ice, and apparently it still smelled even when frozen in 75 below weather. Before THAT, in 1898-99, there was a "slough" down by church street on the south end of town where people would dump their garbage and there were ditches from the houses for dumping water (no indoor plumbing). In high water, the Klondike river would come through the slough and whisk the trash away. Eventually they had to divert part of the river to clean it out. There is a report from 1975 for community development that mentions how badly the "slough" smells and how clogged up with garbage it is. So apparently it was a lingering practice.

The "slough" is where the Dawson City Music Festival is this weekend. No sign of trash, but it's been raining for three days and the place is flooded. I will keep my eye on the ground for anything interesting to turn up in the mud.